European Parliament President Martin Schulz shockingly ducked his duty to publicly relay the parliament’s concerns on human rights in China following his meeting this week with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Instead his statement noted that "difficulties and differences"exist when referring to EU-China relations.
Activists in China deserved better from the President of a Parliament that has adopted an array of resolutions calling out China for its rights abuses and that even awarded its prestigious Sakharov Prize to Chinese dissident Hu Jia back in 2008.
Schulz’s meeting with Xi Jinping comes at a time when Chinese authorities have launched one of their harshest crackdowns on civil society in recent memory, harassing, detaining, and prosecuting dozens of activists associated with peaceful efforts to promote government transparency and public asset disclosure.
While the Chinese government has undertaken some reforms, such as the abolition of the abusive reeducation through labor system of arbitrary detention, such progress is undermined by the ongoing use of other such systems. The government continues to tightly control the domestic press, and in the past year imposed new restrictions limiting online speech.
At a minimum Schulz should have called for the immediate release of all rights advocates in China, including Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo, and his wife, Liu Xia, who is currently under house arrest. This is a call that has been made by the parliament in its resolutions.
Schulz’s actions make one question the value he places on the Parliament’s human rights resolutions if he will not convey their recommendations publicly at the highest level. He may have very well raised Parliament’s concerns with Xi Jinping behind closed doors, but publicly conveying these concerns was important. It would have demonstrated that the Parliament means what it says in its numerous resolutions on human rights in China and truly does stand by those in the country, including its own Sakharov laureate, who are struggling on a daily basis to exercise and protect their human rights.
Instead of making glib references to "difficulties" in the EU-China relationship, Schulz should think about the "difficulties" activists in China face.
